D E T A C H E D: As a Walking Song

The name Detached first came to me as the name for a stoned-out, one-time-only magazine project in 1981. Mostly, it was a trip to San Francisco in early-1981 that gave me the inspiration. Spending an hour looking at a ton of such artsy, one-off publications in the famous City Lights Bookstore did the trick.

It was to be a collection of comix-style art created by several artists. It was going to have a little flexi-disc with music and comedy on it. Now such a concept might be called a book-zine, or something like that. Although quite a bit of material was created and submitted, this was one of those projects that got away from me.

Consequently, it was never produced, although some of the material and ideas made their way into issues of SLANT later on ... but that's another story.

In 1985, Detached, as a title, became the name for a song. It came to me during a walk. It started when I was a kid, then for decades after, I used to make up songs in the course of solitary walks. The cadence of my steps would serve as the beat, for singing them softly to myself or just in my head.

When I finished the walk I'd almost always forget the new song. Sometimes it was quite frustrating. Other thoughts, like solutions, inventions, schemes and so forth, would stick long enough to be written down when I got home. But most of the time these walking songs refused to be gathered that way.

Those songs were like my dreams that almost faded away, as I sat up in bed in the morning. And, like those rare dreams that would remain vivid into the day, only a few of my walking songs stayed assembled in my head, so I could sing them again ... much less write down the words. 

With regard to walking alone, I've generally put extra trust in ideas that came to me while walking purposely. Something about the rhythm would make tunes, sometimes words, too, pop into my head. I miss the private sense of delight those dreamy walkng songs gave me.  

D E T A C H E D

I want to thank you pal
for helping out
While I went crazy.

It wasn’t all fun
It just had to be done.

Beauty mark and a ponytail
Hey!
Your check’s in the mail.

De-tached.

When I could close my eyes
And float away
Life seemed so easy.

Watching tides of fashion
Riding waves of passion.

Smokey edges of a photograph
Yo!
We just had to laugh.

De-tached.

With this song I still remember the tune. It usually has a south-of-the-border rhythm to it. Sometimes I whistle it while I'm walking, but I don't sing to myself often, anymore. Hardly ever play my chromatic harmonica along with canned music that calls out to me, either. My neighbors are probably happy about that.

Now I use Detached as a title for a group of short stories. To see about them go here.